The President's Note N° 11 - November 2024

Dear Gymnastics Family,

What a busy year it has been, and October was highlighted by the TeamGym Europeans that were hosted in Baku (AZE), for the first time ever. Each year we witness the growth in quantity and the level of athletes in TeamGym, and it is proving to be one of the leading disciplines which attracts and impacts sports tourism directly. I was pleased to see so many international fans and spectators on the grandstands contributing to the great atmosphere of the competition. A thousand of those fans are dedicated supporters who travel to every TeamGym competition no matter where it is held. Their colourful presence delivers a spectacular picture on all grandstands of our competitions.

To promote this fabulous discipline we took this opportunity to invite federations from other continents to share the experience and lay the path for further development of this discipline in other continents. I am positive that TeamGym will further grow in popularity and the number of interested countries will follow with it. I would like to express my gratitude to the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation and the Technical Committee of TeamGym for the  spectacular organisation of this event.

Following the TeamGym Europeans, attentions were turned to the FIG election Congress held in Doha (QAT). It is worthy to mention the great organisation and hospitality provided by the Qatar Federation. After hearing all the reports, we moved on to the election part of the Congress. I would like to congratulate the newly elected Executive Committee and Council members, the presidents and members of the technical committees and wish them luck in all the work that you do for our sport in the following four years.

A difficult Olympic year is coming to an end in November. The following months that take us to the end of the year will not see any major events and will give us a chance to cool down after a busy year. This will give a chance for federations, athletes, and coaches to prepare for the following year and work on their new programmes for the new Olympic cycle, and overall development and transition of junior teams to seniors.

Cool down, recharge, come back stronger!

Dr. Farid Gayibov

European Gymnastics President